Missile warnings, CDC nuclear detonation briefings, and Trump is golfing. Will this president tweet us into war?

Public service signs in Hawaii are an attempt to reassure Hawaiians after imminent missile attack alerts brought chaos Saturday

ITEM – Military preparation – The U.S. military is quietly preparing contingency plans for a war, possibly nuclear, as New York Times reported Tuesday. Read it. .

ITEM – False ’take cover’ alert in Hawaii: On Saturday 1:07pm ET, cell phones flashed all over Hawaii: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” It took 40 minutes for news that that was a false alarm. But terrifying video surfaced immediately of people’s panicked attempts to get in somewhere safe, or protect their children. In one (since taken down) people are shown putting terrified little kids into storm drains. Read more.. Texts sent while it was happening. What some residents were doing.

ITEM – Trump golfs, tweets: On CNN’s incident timeline, Donald Trump was golfing at his Trump International in West Palm Beach, Florida. Golfing as Hawaiians and tourists were panicking, and lunching at the golf course when the all-clear went out. The White House was unable to say whether he had been briefed on any of this by the time he left his golf resort and returned back to his Mar-a-Lago resort. Neither Chief of Staff John Kelly nor National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster were traveling with the president. Trump was not heard from for more than 4 hours. He surfaced at 5:08pm to tweet his unhappiness at Michael Wolff’s exposé of his White House, Fire and Fury. Read more.

ITEM – Japan gets a false ‘take cover’ alert: Yesterday, Japan’s public broadcaster announced: “North Korea appears to have launched a missile … The government urges people to take shelter inside buildings or underground. That warning to take cover immediately went out on the public website and to people’s phones via the public broadcast app. It was retracted less than 10 minutes later. Read about Japan.

ITEM – CDC briefing on nuclear attack: Yesterday, the CDC was scheduled to run a preparedness briefing: “Public Health Response to a Nuclear Detonation” It was canceled at the last minute – and replaced with a briefing about influenza. Read more.

ITEM – Korean War vets: Veterans organization VoteVets put out a call to members asking them their level of concern at the prospect of imminent nuclear was with North Korea. VoteVets is asking all members, particularly Korean War vets to speak out against going to war with North Korea. VoteVets.org.

ITEM – Veterans in New Jersey: The Korean War Memorial in Atlantic City, beneath an eternal flame, is engraved with the names of 822 New Jerseyans who were killed there or are still missing in action. I don’t know how many NJ Korean War vets made it back and still live here . I’m trying to track that number down, because I’m interested. One of my political mentors was a Korean War vet – Silver Star and Purple Heart – but he’s not around anymore to ask. VoteVets.org is looking for you guys, to ask you to object to any attempt to take us to war with North Korea. New Jerseyans who served.